Elastic-tread horseshoe



UNrTEn STATES WILLIAM R. HOWE,

PAT NT FEICE.

OF DAYTON, OHIO.

ELASTlC-TREAD HORSESHOE.

I SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 621,090, dated March14, I899. Application filed May 23, 1898. Serial No. 681,457. (Nomodel.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, I/VILLIAM R. HOWE, a citizen of the United States,residing at Dayton, in the county of Montgomery and State of Ohio, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Elastic-TreadHorseshoes, of which the following is afull, clear, and exactdescription, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, formingpart of this specification.

My invention relates to that class of horseshoes known aselastic-treadshoes, in which elastic materialis inserted in suitablegrooves in the under side of the shoe to prevent shocks and jars andkeep the horse from slipping; and the special object of my invention isto provide means in the shoe itself for retaining the elastic materialin place without the necessity of any positive clamping or holdingdevices such as have been usually employed; and the noveltyconsists insuch construction of the groove or grooves and the packing, to

be hereinafter more particularly set forth, and pointed out in theclaims, whereby the elastic packing when once inserted in the groovewill retain itself without wire or other holding devices.

In the drawings, Figure l is a bottom plan view of a horseshoe embodyingmy invention. Fig. 2 is a transverse section of same, taken on line 2 2of Fig. 1, the central portion of the shoe being broken away. Fig. 3 isa front view of the shoe. Fig. 4 isa bottom plan view of one-half of theshoe, showing a modification of the packing; and Fig. 5 is a transversesection thereof, taken on the line 5 5 of Fig. 4.

Ais the body of the shoe, of the usual and suitable material. The undersurface of the shoe is formed with a groove a, running from heel to heeland cut away at the toe, so as to dispense with the front wall of thegroove thereat. This groove a is enlarged or made dovetailed at the baseand is preferably formed with vertical side walls I) b for shortdistances inward. At the toe-opening the groove is also formed in thesame way, while a flange of metal 0 is left attached to the base of theshoe to be turned up, as hereinafter described.

B is the elastic packing, preferably of soft vulcanized rubber or othersuitable material, having the similar characteristics of elasticity andadhesiveness on wet orslippery surfaces. The inner surface of thiselastic packing is preferably provided with a strip of canvas cl to givesubstantial backing against the base of the groove, or instead of thisstrip of canvas the rubber may be hardened at the base. The strip ofrubber is also provided with a longitudinal opening e through the same,from end to end, or a longitudinal slit f, as shown in Fig. 5, may beformed instead of the opening. This elastic material is formed of thesame shape as the groove, with an enlarged portion at the base, theenlarged portion, however, being somewhat narrower than that portion ofthe groove to allow for expansion, as

hereinafter set forth. The packing is inserted in the groove from thetoe-opening, the end portions being readily pushed back to the heel, andthen the flange c is bent up and over the front of the toe portion tohold same in place. It will be evident that from this construction thepacking will be held in the groove by the side flanges thereon, so thatit cannot be displaced while in use, and it will also be evident thatthere will be room for the packing to expand within the groove while inuse, so that the wear on the packing, which extends, as shown, slightlybeyond the bottom surface of the shoe, will be very .much less than itwould be if the packing were arranged to fit the groove snugly.

The purpose of the longitudinal opening 6 or of the slit f is to allowmore ready expansion without wear on the top surface of the packing,while the purpose of hardening the base of the packing or providing thecanvas strip dis to prevent Wear on that portion of the packing and alsoto more readily insure said expansion within the groove.

In Fig. 1 I have shown a continuous groove from heel to heel; butinstead of forming a continuous groove a series of short grooves orslots may be substituted to receive corresponding pieces of packing.These shorter grooves or slots, may be merely portions of the continuousgroove, as shown in Fig. 4, or the slots maybe round, oblong, or of anydesired external shape, it being understood, of course, that the slotsare wider at the base than at the ground-surface and that the packing isof the same character as for the continuous groove. When these shortgrooves are used, it will be preferable to form the slits f in the baseof the packing to allow for a more ready insertion of the sections ofpacking.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secureby Letters Patcut, is

1. In ahorseshoe, the combination, with the metal body, provided with agroove on its under side wider at the base than at the surface, of anelastic packing in said groove and projecting slightly therefrom, saidpacking being also wider at the base than at the surface but narrowerthan the base portion of said groove, whereby when inserted the packingwill be retained in place by the side walls of said groove but will bereadily eXpansible therein,su bstan tially as shown and described.

2. In ahorseshoe, the combination, with the metal body provided with agroove on its under side wider at the base than at the surface, of anelastic packing in said groove and proje'cting slightly therefrom, saidpacking be ing also wider at the base than at the surface but narrowerthan the base portion of said groove, and having a longitudinal openingor slit therein to assist in the expansion thereof within the groove,substantially as shown and described.

3. In ahorseshoe, the combination, with the metal body provided with agroove on its under side wider at the base than at the surface, of anelastic packingin said groove, hardened or bound with canvas at itsbase, and projecting slightly from said groove, said packing being alsowider at the base than at the surface, but narrower than the baseportion of said groove, whereby when inserted the packing will beretained in place by the side walls of said groove but will be readilyexpansible therein, substantially as shown and described.

4. In ahorseshoe, the combination, with the metal body, provided with agroove on its under side wider at the base than at the surface, and atoe-opening with a flange at the front thereof, of an elastic packing insaid groove and projecting slightly therefrom, said packing being alsowider at the base than at the surface but narrower than the base portionof said groove, whereby when inserted the packing will be retained inplace by the side walls of said groove, said toe-flange being turned upover the packing to hold the toe portion in place, substantially asshown and described.

WILLIAM R. HOWE.

\Vitn esses:

THOMAS A. MUMuA, PHILIP FREDERICK.

